Agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) Working Group Steering Committee

This page contains biographies of the members of the AFOLU Working Group Steering Committee. To return to the AFOLU Working group home page, click here.

Caitlin Corner-Dolloff

Caitlin Corner-Dolloff is an International Agriculture Development Program Manager at the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Office of Capacity Building and Development. She designs and implements programs that link partner governments with technical expertise to build their capacity to implement resilient agriculture programs, especially through addressing the synergies and tradeoffs between agricultural productivity, resilience, and low emissions development. Previous to joining USDA she was an Adaptation Specialist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) conducting research in collaboration with the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) Research Program. In that role Caitlin led interdisciplinary teams to develop and test multi-level climate-smart agriculture (CSA) decision support tools, such as the CCAFS CSA Country Profiles and CSA Prioritization Framework. She has coordinated research and capacity building initiatives in over 25 countries in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, and has been based in Colombia, Kenya, Vietnam, and now Washington D.C. Her work aims to increase evidence-based decision-making in agriculture development planning, integrating natural resource management, stakeholder engagement, and learning processes in policy creation and implementation. She holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford and a BA in Participatory Environmental Management from the College Scholar Program at Cornell University.

David Ganz

David Ganz has over 20 years of experience in natural resource management including several years working in Asia on large-scale natural resource management and biomass energy projects. He is currently the Executive Director of the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC). Before joining RECOFTC, David served as the Chief of Party on SERVIR-Mekong, a joint initiative between USAID and NASA aimed at developing geospatial data to respond to the environmental and disaster needs of the region. Prior to SERVIR-Mekong, David was Chief of Party on USAID’s Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF) programme. From 1999 to 2002, David worked as an Assistant Project Officer at RECOFTC headquarters. He is a graduate of two distinguished community forestry institutions, University of California at Berkeley and Yale University, which promote multi-disciplinary decision-making through strong communication and team work skills. He has successfully taken these skills into project management of international organizations including TNC, FAO, IUCN and WWF in China and Southeast Asia.

Ameil Harikishun

Ameil Harikishun is based at SouthSouthNorth (SSN) in Cape Town (South Africa) as a researcher and project manager. SouthSouthNorth is the Africa LEDS Partnership (AfLP) Co-secretariat and Ameil is the AfLP’s liaison for the African Communities of Practice (CoP) for green mini-grids and AFOLU. Additionally, Ameil will be providing support to the AfLP’s engagement with the LEDS GP’s Working Group on Finance.

In addition to Ameil’s role in the AfLP co-secretariat, he is involved in several climate finance projects and programmes, with a particular focus on international climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Ameil engages regionally and internationally on accessing climate finance, including regional (Southern African) engagement on accessing climate finance for resilient water infrastructure development. In May 2017, Ameil attended the GCF B.16 Board Meeting in the capacity of advisor to the South African board member.

Ameil received his BSc (Hnrs) at the University of Cape Town,with a double major in Applied Biology and Marine Biology, and is currently completing his MSc through Rhodes University. Between 2013 and 2016 Ameil worked as a student researcher for South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).

Ha Thuy Hanh

Biography coming soon

Todd Johnson

Biography coming soon

Marija Spirovska Kono

Marija Spirovska Kono is working for the US Forest Service as a Regional Coordinator for the SilvaCarbon Southeast Asia Program. SilvaCarbon is a flagship initiative of the US Government to assist partner countries in the production and application of improved information related to forest and terrestrial carbon. Ms. Kono has over 15 years of experience managing forestry-sector projects in Europe and Asia. Since 2008, she has been based in Bangkok, Thailand and has worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. Ms. Kono has been with the Asia Regional SilvaCarbon Program from its start in 2013, and has been working with forestry and other land-use agencies in the region to design and implement series of capacity building events, regional workshops, and tailored country-level technical support.

Steven Lawry

Steven Lawry is Director of CIFOR’s Equity, Gender and Tenure research program, leading a team of nine scientists and research associates based at CIFOR offices in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Dr. Lawry has published studies and scholarly articles on the social and ecological effects of forest rights devolution; the impacts of land rights formalization on agricultural investment and productivity; and tenure factors affecting adoption of agroforestry technologies in West Africa, among other topics. He received a PhD from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988. The same year he joined the research staff of UW-Madison’s Land Tenure Center (LTC). He became LTC’s Associate Director in charge of Africa programs in 1990. Dr. Lawry held senior positions in the Ford Foundation from 1992 to 2006, including head of the Foundation’s Office for the Middle East and North Africa in Cairo from 1997 to 2001. He was president of Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 2006 and 2007. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations from 2008 to 2013. On leave from the Kennedy School, he headed the USAID-funded Sudan Property Rights Program in 2010 and 2011, based in Juba, assisting the Government of South Sudan develop a national land policy. Dr. Lawry served as Global Practice Leader for Land Tenure and Property Rights at DAI, a Washington-based consulting group, from 2011 to 2014. He joined CIFOR in September 2014.

Danae Maniatis

Danae works with the UNDP REDD+ team on various aspects of REDD+, including the development of REDD+ readiness programmes, National REDD+ strategies, Investment Plans, policies and measures to achieve results-based actions, forest monitoring systems and forest reference emissions levels, supporting countries in NDCs and development of REDD+ GCF projects.

Danae’s areas of expertise include a range of interdisciplinary issues related to forests, tropical ecosystems, REDD+ and climate change. She has spent a significant amount of her time working in remote areas in the African forests on forest inventories and ethno-botanical surveys, as well as following the UNFCCC negotiations and engaging with policy makers to develop and implement forest related programmes in the Congo Basin and Côte d’Ivoire.

From 2009 – 2013 she worked for FAO in the UN-REDD Programme as a Forestry officer. Her role was to spearhead the development and implementation of REDD+ National Forest Monitoring Systems for a number of central and West African countries (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Burundi, Gabon, Rwanda, Tchad, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and South Sudan). Danae was also the officer in charge and FAO’s Team Leader for the development of the project on National MRV systems with a regional approach for the Congo Basin countries together with the Congo Basin Forest Fund and the African Development Bank.

Outside her work, Danae works with the University of Oxford, where she holds a Visiting Research Associate position, on research related to tropical ecosystems and also leads workshops on REDD+ for Master students. She has authored and co-authored a number of publications and institutional reports.

Danae holds a PhD and Master degree from the University of Oxford. She has lived and/or worked in Belgium, UK, France, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Gambia, Gabon and Italy.

Suphasuk (Bird) Pradubsuk

Suphasuk (Bird) Pradubsuk brings over 15 years’ experience leading the design and management of climate change, forestry, agriculture, natural resource management programs at regional, country, and community levels in the Asia region. Currently, she serves as a regional program development specialist for USAID Asia efforts to mobilize public and private finance for upscaling investment in low emission land use management activities in agriculture, forestry and other land uses sector.

Robert O’Sullivan

Robert O’Sullivan, Deputy Senior Director, Policy, Markets & Finance and the Water Unit at Winrock International, is a law, policy and finance specialist with over 15 years of experience working with businesses, governments and civil society to address climate change. He has particular expertise in land use and forestry, where he was a leading contributor to ideas that helped shaped UNFCC decisions on REDD+. He has worked on the production of deforestation-free commodities, national policy options to incentivize forest conservation and restoration, the development of GHG accounting standards, analysis of the carbon credit market supply and demand, registries, governance, and coastal and marine ecosystems. As a lawyer, he led and co-led the drafting and negotiation of over $350 million worth of contracts for the sale and purchase of carbon credits for the World Bank and private sector clients. He also led due diligence on numerous wind, hydro, biomass-to-energy and forestry projects around the world and has worked on projects in 23 countries including China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Laos, Moldova, Nepal, Peru and the U.S. He has delivered guest lectures at Yale and New York University Law Schools, and has been a regular guest lecturer on climate change law at George Washington University Law School since 2009. O’Sullivan is also the co-chair of the AFOLU Working Group of the LEDS GP. He has bachelor’s degrees in science and arts and a law degree from the University of Queensland, and a master of laws from American University’s Washington College of Law.

Luke Pritchard

Luke Pritchard is a Senior Program Officer for the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force, an international network of 38 states and provinces collaborating to reduce tropical deforestation in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Peru. With a background in international development and tropical forestry he has experience working at the nexus of governance, natural resource management and climate change in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Luke speaks Spanish and is based in Boulder, Colorado.

Laura Scandurra

Laura Scandurra is the Director of Strategy and Global Partnerships at Lutheran World Relief (LWR). Prior to joining LWR, Laura served as a Foreign Service Officer with the Foreign Agricultural Service, US Department of Agriculture, for over twenty five years. In this capacity, she served in China, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Japan and Peru. She also held various positions in Washington DC including Director of the Development Resources and Disaster Assistance Division, Office of Capacity Building and Development, where she managed a $100 million portfolio of agricultural development projects in over 20 countries. She also managed a team of over 225 technical experts assigned to the US Agency for International Development. Laura has a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Kimberly Todd

Kimberly Todd is a REDD+ technical specialist with the UNDP REDD+ team. In this role, she provides technical support to UNDP regional teams and countries on REDD+, particularly on issues related to reference levels and MRV. Before joining UNDP in 2012, she was a Policy Analyst with the United States Environmental Protection Agency from 2006 -2011. In that position, she was a member of the US delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations with a focus on REDD+ technical issues and was one of the coordinators of the U.S. greenhouse gas inventory reporting for land use, land-use change and forestry. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Boston College as well as a Master of Science degree in Biology from Fordham University. She also holds a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University.

Francesco Tubiello

Francesco Tubiello is a Senior Officer at FAO, where he serves as Team Leader of Environmental Statistics. His main area of expertise is in assessing the linkages between agriculture, food security and climate change.

At FAO, he leads data collection, analysis and dissemination of several FAOSTAT data domains, including Land Use, Fertilizers, Pesticides, Agri-Environmental Indicators, and GHG Emissions. He contributes to capacity development and training activities in developing counties, with a focus on joint environmental-economic analyses for sustainable development. He is a member of the Bureau of the UN Committee of Experts on Economic Environmental Accounting, a member of the UN Expert Group on Environmental Statistics, and an IPCC lead author. He is an editor for Climate Policy.